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Election 2008
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Wednesday, May 07, 2008, 11:27 AM
Pittenger, Dalton win crowded primaries for lt. governor From staff and wire reports RALEIGH -- A pair of state senators -- Republican Robert Pittenger and Democrat Walter Dalton -- will face each other this fall in the race for lieutenant governor after winning party primaries in Tuesday's election. Both men were easy primary winners in Wilson County, each with better than 50 percent of the vote. There was no such resolution in the Democratic race for labor commissioner, which appears headed for a runoff. Pittenger beat three Republicans hoping to win the state's No. 2 post. With 97 percent of precincts reporting unofficial results, Pittenger had 59 percent of the vote. Dalton beat three Democrats, winning 46 percent of the vote. Durham attorney Hampton Dellinger was second with 34 percent. Dalton said he's focused on improving education, creating jobs and improving accessibility to health care. There were several large fields of challengers in primaries for seats on the Council of State, including a labor commissioner primary in which none of the four candidates were able to claim more than 30 percent of the vote. Mary Fant Donnan -- a program officer for the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation in Winston-Salem -- led with 28 percent of the vote. Former commissioner John Brooks, Ty Richardson and Robin Anderson all hovered around 24 percent. Brooks led the voting in Wilson County. The top two will advance to a runoff June 24, assuming the second-place finisher requests one. The results were too close to call early today. In the superintendent for public instruction races, incumbent June Atkinson won the Democratic primary, while former state House co-speaker Richard Morgan won the GOP race. Both did better in Wilson County than statewide with county voters going 54 percent for Atkinson and 55 percent for Morgan. Voters statewide and in Wilson chose Wayne Goodwin of Rockingham, a former state legislator, as the Democrat to replace long-time commissioner Jim Long. He'll face Republican John Odom, a former Raleigh councilman. Beth A. Wood of Raleigh, a former trainer in the auditor's office, won the Democratic primary and will face Republican Les Merritt in the fall. Wood got 60 percent of the county vote, short of what she did statewide.
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